Death row exoneree Kirk Bloodsworth will speak at Fort Hays State University at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.

Bloodsworth was sentenced for a 1984 rape-murder that he did not commit. He spent nine years in prison, two of them on death row. DNA evidence proved his innocence in 1993, and he was granted a full pardon by the governor of Maryland in 1994.

Bloodsworth was the first person in the United States to be exonerated from death row by DNA evidence. Now he speaks around the country for Witness to Innocence, an organization for death row exonerees, sharing his story.

In 2005 Tim Junkin published a book titled "Bloodsworth: The True Story of One Man's Triumph over Injustice." He also recently appeared on "The Colbert Report."